Saturday, 18 April 2015

This teaser leaked online yesterday, so most people have already watched and condemned it based on terrible smart-phone footage. I wasn't going to do that, as everything deserves to be seen in its best form. BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE is a film that's struggling to excite discerning geeks, despite the fact the title alone would have sent nerds into meltdown about 10 years ago. But a lot has changed since 2005. Superhero movies are ten-a-penny, and most are very good—Oscar-worthy in the case of Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. The standards are higher now, so fans expect more...

BvS will be a huge hit because, really, how can it not be? But as a "sequel" to the widely-hated Man of Steel, and a new Batman movie coming so soon after the Dark Knight films ended, it's having a hard time convincing people this will be good. Throw in the fact it's also acting as the introduction of Lex Luthor, Wonder Man (and maybe Aquaman), to launch the Avengers-style Justice League for DC, and everyone's quite rightly worried director Zack Snyder's biting off more than he can chew.

Director Michelle MacLaren (Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones) recently left the Wonder Woman project over creative differences, so there's just a bad feeling in the air with what DC are trying to achieve. It feels badly managed and in too much of a rush. Marvel spent four years building towards The Avengers with a series of quality movies; carefully easing the mainstream public into its grander vision, and introducing characters that were once seen as second or third-tier names. DC is just slamming its two biggest names together, and it feels like they're just hoping for the best. Don't get me started on the now-filming Suicide Squad, either...

The trailer itself? Doom-laden and overly serious, much like Man of Steel proved to be. I respect they want to do something different with Superman's character, but making him into the villain (hated by the people of Earth for bringing alien destruction to their world), just feels problematic. I don't want to feel that way about Superman, who should be an optimistic character. Rather like Marvel's Captain America, actually—who will soon be facing off against Tony Stark/Iron Man in Captain America: Civil War. And that's a rivalry that feels plausible, earned and exciting to behold.

Ben Affleck looks great in the Bat-suit, though. It makes a change having an actor who appears very imposing and muscled. His Bat-voice is surprisingly terrifying, but thankfully less comical than Christian Bale's rasping often was.

But there's just something about the whole exercise that feel poorly-judged to me.